Category: Final Project

Final Project Reflection

When I saw the requirements for this week I was excited! My only concern was that I only had four days to complete it, and for one of the days I was coming back from vacation. However, I put my nerves aside and started brainstorming my topics for this assignment. After countless hours of thinking, nothing came to mind. I looked at the examples that were given in this week’s agenda and suddenly a lightbulb went off! One of the examples was based off of Disney vs. Pixar and as a Disney and Pixar fanatic I started to explore my options. I finally came to the conclusion of picking the Disney vs. fairytale endings.

Selecting a movie to do was more difficult. I found two different websites that assisted me into making my final decision. At first I found a Cosmo article, which photoshopped Disney characters into real life situations. I enjoyed this idea, but I didn’t know how I was going to incorporate it into my overall project. The second website I found compared Disney movie endings with the real fairytale endings. I chose Frozen and The Snow Queen because not many people know Frozen is based off of that story.

After I selected my topic I browsed through the different assignment banks and found all the one’s that would compliment each other. The hardest part about this project was making sure that everything flowed together nicely. Each project itself was somewhat time consuming. My most challenging task was the second design assignment I did. The DVD menu assignment was difficult for me because it’s hard to find images go well enough together to create a GIF. Once I accomplished that, it became a problem again later when I was doing my final video!

My only two roadblocks for this final project was the overall idea and the second design assignment. Everything else was easier than I expected. The only reason I think I didn’t have as much difficulty as I usually do is because I was already familiar with each of the programs that I used. Man, I’m suprised GIMP was easier to work with too!

Final Project

Have you ever wondered how different Disney would be if it didn’t always end in ‘happily ever after’? Well ponder no further for I am here to tell you a story about a woman named Barbara, who challenged the ‘happily ever after’ endings.

One night, Barbara, a working woman and parent was having movie night with her husband and three children. It was the children’s turn to pick the movie, so they picked Disney’s Frozen. The children loved the movie, but Barbara thought differently. It was like all the other Disney movies she had seen. So she decided to look up the alternative endings of Disney movies vs. fairytales. She came to find that the fairytale versions were more intense and dark, but she thought that that could serve as a good lesson to the children. She wanted them to become aware of some of the issues the world has today.

The next day, Barbara decided to call some of her friends to tell them what she had discovered. Her friends agreed with her and they decided to create a Diss Disney club. The purpose of their club is to bring awareness to other parents on how Disney can sometimes act as a negative influencer to children. Once their club started to receive a plethora of members they decided it was time to take action. They came to the conclusion that they had to call the Disney corporation…

Barbara and her club were furious when Disney didn’t consider their idea. However, they decided that they would keep trying. In order for their voice to be heard Diss Disney thought that they should vote on a movie, make a promotional movie poster, post it around the school and send one to Disney. They decided to chose Disney’s Frozen because of how popular it was when Disney first released it. They also thought that the name flowed nicely with the book it’s based off of, The Snow Queen.

After receiving the flyer Disney decided to agree to Barbara and her associations terms, by remaking the ending of one movie. They had two major policies though. The first one they presented was that they would go with Diss Disney’s idea and use Frozen, but they would not incorporate The Snow Queen tale, because they didn’t want to obliterate the characters they had already created in their film. The second policy they presented was the agreement of only producing one DVD of their new rendition because they didn’t want to harm Disney’s reputation worldwide. The DVD would only be given to Barbara and her friends, and with that they reached a consensus. Disney went on to produce the following film, Frozen Twist.

When the movie had come to an end Barbara thanked Disney, but told them that she had made a mistake. What is Disney if they can’t have their happy endings? The happiest place on earth giving children realistic narratives wouldn’t qualify as the happiest place on earth anymore. The Disney team accepted her apology and told her one of Walt’s famous quotes, “That’s the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up.” And with that Barbara terminated Diss Disney, coming to the conclusion that Walt Disney was correct. Too many people grow up…

Final Project: How To

For the tutorial on my final project I’ve decided to break it down into four different sections. The four sections display the different types of media I used and how I created each of them. These sections include, audio, visual, design, and video. If you want to see how I created my final product join me on my How To journey by continuing to my first section, audio.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆ ½

The first part of my assignment involved creating the audio. I had to make an audio file that was based on a conversation between two people. In my particular siuation, the conversation is between a woman named Barbara, who represents the Diss Disney group and a man from the Disney corporation. I went to the audio assignment bank and found an assignment that was similar to my idea. At first, I was going to have someone speak the male portion of my audio, but this assignment gave me the idea of changing the pitch of my voice to make it manly. For instructions on how to do the audio section of my assignment, follow the procedure below.

Part 1: Audacity

Step 3: Once you have Audacity downloaded and opened, go to the File tab, select Import, click on Audio.

Step 4: Upload all of your downloaded audio from FreeSound.

Step 5: Now you’ll want to align the audios. To do this select the Time Shift Tool and connect the audios together. Meaning, start the second audio where the first audio ended and so on.

Step 6: Once you’ve aligned all of your audios together. It’s time to edit each of those audio files. Go to your second audio and highlight the section of the audio that you want in your overall product. Once you highlight it, selec the Trim Audio tool. This will delete everything that you haven’t highlighted.

Step 7: Recording time! It’s time for you to record your script. In order to turn on our microphone click on the Start Monitoring button.

Step 8: You’ll notice that when you turn on your mic, the monitor will turn green. When you’re ready to record, press the record button.

Step 9: Now align your newly recorded material by repeating step #5. Refer to the image below for guidance.

Step 10: After you’ve realigned all of your audio with your recording. You’ll want to change the pitch. In my case I will be changing the pitch of the male part by giving it a deeper voice. First, I highlighted the whole male audio. Next, go to the tabs at the top of the program. There you will see a tab that says, Effects. Click on it. It will present you with a drop down menu, select the Change Pitch option.

Step 11: Once you complete Step #10 a pop up window will appear. In order to change the voice to male make sure that all the settings match with the screenshot below.

Step 12: After you apply the effect you can now save your work. To do this go to the File tab, export audio.

Step 13: When saving your work make sure that it is saved as a MP3 file type. If you do not have this option available to you go to this website and download it’s program. Once you download it and reopen Audacity you will be able to save it as a MP3 file.

Part 2: SoundCloud

Step 15: Go to SoundCloud, sign in, and select the upload option. Select the ‘choose a file to upload’ option. Once you select your file your screen should look like the second screenshot below. Fill out all the necessary information. Hit save! All done!

Rating: ☆☆

Since my project is based on a Disney film, I wanted to see if there were any previous visual assignments that included the same subject. After searching endlessly in the visual assignment bank I had finally found one! For this section I designed an ‘idea’ poster created by the Diss Disney club in order to persuade the Disney corporation into remaking a movie ending. This visual assignment is later combined with the first design assignment, which can be found in the Design section below. To create something similar to my visual image, follow the procedure below!

PhotoDirector

Step 1: Go to the app PhotoDirector. If you do not have it downloaded, you can download it here.

Step 2: Once you download your app this is how the main page will look like. Select the edit image option.

Step 3: After you upload your image, scroll through the taskbar and find the Splash effect.

Step 4: When you select the Splash effect it should have a scroll bar at the bottom. Make sure the number on this bar is 32. This will ensure that only the blue in the image will remain, while all the other colors disappear.

Step 5: After you apply the Splash effect, search for the Blur Tool in the taskbar. When you find it it should look like the screenshot below. Make sure that it is set to the circular shape. Then move the focus over the snow flake. This should blur everything else in the image, while still keeping the blue coloring.

Step 6: Once you apply your Blur effect, you can save your image. To do this select the save icon on the top of the app.

Here is my final product:

Link to assignment is tagged in ‘Section 2: Visual’

Section 3: Design

Rating: ☆☆☆☆ + ☆☆☆☆ ½

In order for this section to be less confusing I divided it up into two divisions. The first division involves completing the visual assignment that was done in Section 2: Visual. The second assignment involves the DVD menu created by the Disney Corporation once they agree to remake the ending of Frozen.

I found this assignment in the design assignment bank and I thought it would go really well with my project. The only twist that I gave my assignment from the actual assignment was that the original assignment asked for two movie titles and combining them in one. Instead, I used one movie title (Frozen) with the book it’s based on (The Snow Queen). For instructions on how to complete this assignment follow the procedure below.

GIMP

Step 1: Open the program GIMP. If you do not have it, you can download it here.

Step 2: Once you open GIMP, go to the File tab and select Open.

Step 3: After you upload your image, go to the far left sidebar, and select the Text Tool icon.

Step 4: Type in the textbox, highlight the text, and go to the far left taskbar and select the color you want your text to be in.

Step 5: Repeat Step #4 for the rest of your words.

Step 6: To save your image, go to File, export as. When saving your image make sure that it saves as a .png or a .JPG.

The second division of my project’s design portion involves the DVD menu that the Disney corporatation includes into their movie remake. I got this idea from an assignment in the design assignment bank. This assignment involved taking a scene from the movie, converting it to a DVD menu by making it a GIF. To guidance on how to create your own DVD menu, follow the instructions below!

GIMP

Step 1: Open the program GIMP, if you don’t have it you can download it here. Once you open the program go to the File tab, open, and select your FIRST image.

Step 2: Since we are making a GIF, your next step is to go to the File tab, and select open as layers. You need to do this for the rest of your images (except the first one). All of your uploaded layers will appear on the taskbar on the far right side of the screen.

Step 3: After all your images are uploaded, you are going to click on the Text Tool on the far left hand side of the screen. Draw a text box and make sure to include, play movie, bonus feautes, scene selection, and set up.

Step 4: After you type up your text, you will see it appear on the far right side of the screen. Left click on the text layer, giving you a drop down menu, click on the ‘Duplicate Layer’ option.

Step 6: Once you’ve duplicated the layers 3x, you can go ahead and save your work. To do this, go to the File tab and select the Export As option.

Step 7: When saving your work make sure that you apply the .gif extention to your file name. The next thing to be aware of is to make sure that the setting is set as an animation. If it is go ahead and edit the delay between frames. Set this time to 100 milliseconds.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

We’ve reached the final section of my project, video. This section was probably the most complicated because I had to insert the DVD menu from above into my video, along with my alternative ending. My inspiration for incorporating this into my project was an assignment I found in the video assignment bank. This assignment involves changing an ending of a movie, which is exactly what my plan was from the beginning. If you want to try and do this project by yourself and need assistance you can follow the procedure below.

Movie Maker

Step 1: First, make sure that you have a video editing software. I will be using Windows Movie Maker. If you don’t have this program, you can download it here. Once you have your program downloaded go to the blue clipboard icon at the left hand corner of the screen. A menu should appear, select the open option. Upload your first image.

Step 2: After you upload your first image, add another image by going to the Add image/video icon. In this step you should upload your DVD menu that you created in design section above.

Step 3: Once you’ve uploaded your DVD menu your screen should look like this. To playback your film click the play button under the video. If you see that your DVD menu GIF is not playing go to this website to convert it from a GIF file to a WMV file. Once you convert it, click the playback button again and it should be in action.

Step 4: The next step is downloading your videos to include in your Movie Maker film. I went to YouTube and a video I thought would fit well with my project. In order to download it I used this website. Enter your Youtube URL into the SaveFrom.net website. Once you do this it will download to your computer.

Step 6: It’s time to edit your newly uploaded video! To do this, go to the video edit tab and find the Split tool. This tool allows you to separate your video. For example I split up the video by separating the parts that I want to include vs. the parts that I don’t need. If I don’t need it in my video I put the black cursor on the beginning of the video and click the delete button.

Step 7: It’s time to add your second video! To do this, repeat steps # 4 and #5.

Step 8: Next, you are going to add your credits page. However, the credits page on Windows Movie Maker does not allow you to use your own background. To use your own background add the image like you would normally do (see step #2). Then go to the Home tab and select the Caption icon. A text box will appear, enter your credits.

Step 9: After you add your credits slide, add music to it. Remain on the Home tab and select the music symbol icon. Upload your song to the credits slide.

Step 10: It’s time to save your work! Go to the blue clipboard icon and select the Save Movie option. A menu will appear select the For Computer option.

Step 11: Upload your work on Youtube. Go to the upload icon and select your Movie Maker file. Once the video finishes uploading, remember to hit the publish button!